Harcourt Fenton Mudd
'''Harcourt Fenton "Harry" Mudd was a 23rd century male Human, notorious for being a con artist. Essentially more of a lovable rogue than a true villain, he lived by his wits on the other side of the law. Mudd encountered the crew of the on three different occasions. History Stella According to Mudd, at some point before 2256, he fell in love with a woman named Stella. Her family did not approve of him, so he felt he had no choice but to try and buy her father's respect. He borrowed a large sum from some non-traditional lenders and gifted her with a moon. This scheme worked, but he eventually fell behind on his payments and his creditors came after him. They chased him into Klingon territory, where he was captured and deposited on a prison ship. ( ) Captivity by the Klingons For some time, Mudd shared a cell with Starfleet Lieutenant Ash Tyler. As a method of preventing camaraderie amongst prisoners, when the Klingon guards periodically came to deliver a beating, they would allow the subject to choose one of their fellow prisoners to receive the beating instead. Mudd always chose that option. Mudd kept a pet while imprisoned, a small alien insect-like creature he named Stuart, which he trained to steal small objects such as food, sometimes from fellow prisoners. Gabriel Lorca]] In December of 2256, Mudd and Tyler were then joined by the 's Captain Gabriel Lorca. After Lorca's interrogation by L'Rell, Mudd was discovered to be spying on his prisonmates for the Klingons, passing on information when other prisoners confided in him. Lorca and Tyler managed to escape soon after, but left Mudd behind. ( )\ In reality, Mudd had tried to escape overly attached Stella and her arms dealer father who had been searching for him. Abandoning Stella and life as a con man Escaping from Klingon custody with the help of Stuart, a gormagander, and a fourth-dimensional time displacement device, Mudd tracked down Captain Lorca aboard the Discovery in attempt to steal and sell off the ship to pay off his debts with the Klingons. Unfortunately, Lieutenant Paul Stamets was able to use a side effect of the Spore drive to his advantage and united the crew after numerous failed attempts, thwarting his plan by contacting Stella and her father. Mudd's interstellar exploits began again after he deserted Stella once again, becoming a peripatetic grifter who roamed through the galaxy practicing various cons, schemes and scams – not always successfully. By 2266, Mudd had already been convicted of smuggling (receiving a suspended sentence), transporting stolen goods, and purchasing a space vessel using counterfeit currency. For these last two crimes, Mudd was sentenced to undergo psychiatric treatment, the effectiveness of which was officially disputed. He held a Master's License, permitting him to legally operate a spacecraft, but this license was revoked on stardate 1116.4, for operating stolen spacecraft and transporting illegal goods. ( ) First encounter with the Enterprise In 2266, Mudd, using the illegal Venus drug, attempted to sell Eve McHuron, Ruth Bonaventure and Magda Kovacs to a group of lithium miners led by Ben Childress on Rigel XII. The drug gave the impression that the three women were beautiful, when in fact they were not. Childress and the other miners married the women anyway, as they were more interested in companionship and the benefits that having three practical, intelligent women around could provide, and the women were happy to escape their previously lonely existence. Before leaving Rigel XII, Mudd asked to remain on the planet, saying it would be adequate punishment, though this request wasn't granted by Kirk. Criminal charges were later pressed against Mudd for his actions and he spent at least some time in jail. ( ) After this encounter Somehow though, Mudd soon escaped. He then promptly began to sell the plans for alien technologies to various worlds – without bothering to pay any royalties to the actual off-world patent holders. This ended when an attempt to sell Vulcan fuel synthesizer technology to the inhabitants of Deneb V backfired. The transaction was unmasked as a hoax when the Denebians actually contacted to ensure that Mudd had the rights to sell the technology in question... which rights, of course, he lacked. ( ) Second encounter with the Enterprise The penalty for fraud on Deneb V was death. However, Mudd managed to "borrow" a spaceship and escape before the sentence could be carried out. He ended up fleeing to a previously uncharted planet, one that was populated entirely by androids, programmed to adapt the planet for productive use, who became interested in studying Mudd as a specimen of Humanity. This meant that while the androids attended to his every need, and even made him the titular ruler of the planet (later named Mudd in his honor), Mudd was not allowed to leave. Mudd then attempted to broker a deal where he would be allowed to escape, if he provided the androids with other prime Human specimens to study. Therefore, in 2268, Mudd identified the starship Enterprise to the androids as a likely source of exceptional examples of Humanity. (Mudd had no idea at the time that the androids instead planned to take over the galaxy and make all organic sapient races so totally dependent on them that they could effectively enslave these races.) Subsequently the android known as Norman, posing as a member of the Enterprise crew, successfully took control of the ship and took it to the planet Mudd. The crew of the Enterprise, however, was able to escape captivity by identifying Norman as the control for all of the planet's androids. The crew proceeded to confuse Norman with illogical behavior, causing him to break down. After the androids were reprogramed, Mudd was left behind on the planet as an example of a Human failure – along with 500 uncontrollable android replicas of his shrill wife Stella for company. ( ) Third encounter with the Enterprise Eventually, Harry Mudd stole another spaceship and escaped the androids' planet in 2269. He traveled to planet Ilyria VI and "sold" Starfleet Academy to its inhabitants. Mudd then used the proceeds of that con to travel to Sirius IX where he discovered a love potion crystal that he sold to over a thousand of the planet's inhabitants. Unfortunately, the buyers suffered allergic reactions to the crystals, and Mudd was forced to flee to the mining planet Motherlode, where he also tried to sell the love potion drug. Once again, however, he encountered the crew of the Enterprise and was captured by Captain Kirk and Spock. Mudd was incarcerated in the brig, where he gave the love potion to Nurse Chapel as a gift. She then took the potion to Spock, but found that it did not take effect immediately; as a Vulcan, the effects of the drug took longer. Later, the drug did affect him, and Spock fell in love with Nurse Chapel. Fortunately, the drug only had temporary main effects – and a rebound after-effect. After yet another escape, Harry Mudd was again captured and sentenced to an indefinite period of rehabilitation therapy, without guarantee that it would be effective. ( ) Memorable quotes "Ouch!" "Who are you?" "The name is Mudd. Harcourt Fenton Mudd, Harry for short. I reiterate – ouch." : - Harry Mudd and Gabriel Lorca after the latter grabs the former's neck upon awakening. ( ) "You can't walk away from me, Lorca. I'm coming for you. You hear? You haven't seen the last of Harcourt Fenton Mudd!" : - Harry Mudd to Gabriel Lorca after Lorca locks him back up in his cell. ( ) "But men will always be men no matter where they are." : - Harry Mudd, to his ladies ( ) Appendices See also * Mudd Incident Appearances * ** ** * ** (First appearance) ** * Background information Harcourt Fenton Mudd was performed by actor Roger C. Carmel in the three episodes he appeared in for TOS and TAS. With the exception of those actors who played members of the Enterprise crew, Carmel was the only actor to play the same character in more than one episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. He was later played by Rainn Wilson for his appearance in DIS. The character of Harry Mudd, as devised by writer Stephen Kandel, was inspired by the fact that NBC had announced fears that the first Star Trek pilot episode, (with its alien Talosians), would not be understood by its audience. Kandel later recounted, "I said, 'What if we start with a character who isn't alien or highly technologized, but rather somebody with whom the audience would easily identify?' What we came up with was a roofing salesman, a con man." ( issue #117, p. 44) Kandel also stated, "I originally had the idea of a kind of a traveling salesman and con man – the medicine salesman in ''The Wizard of Oz, that ends up as , an interstellar con man hustling whatever he can hustle; a lighthearted, cheerful, song-and-dance man version of a pimp." Stephen Kandel was given the chance to develop one of Gene Roddenberry's story outlines, "The Women", which was basically about "space hookers" bound to be sold as wives on a distant planet by an "intergalactic pimp", named Harry Patton. Kandel felt the story lacked a focal point character, and merged it with his idea of the charismatic con man. (These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One, pp. 43 & 133) In a revised draft of the story outline for (dated ), Mudd was described as "''an old reprobate named Harry Mudd who has a colorful reputation in space for fly-by-night schemes, grandiose promotions, and suspected smuggling. And yet it is impossible not to like Mudd." In the final draft script of "Mudd's Women" (dated ), Mudd was initially described thus; "HARCOURT FENTON MUDD... Harry Mudd... scoundrel... delight... conniver... hustler... and much, much more... half the classic Scaramouche... half the classic almost everything else. Harry Mudd, in a word, is style... and all his own kind." Later in the script, Mudd was referred to as having a "razzle dazzle, extra-legal kind of approach to life," and the teleplay continued, "His instinct is to scratch, scramble and con... his nature is precisely what he says it is and nobody believes." According to the "Mudd's Women" final draft script, Mudd was born on Antares Pi Four and was forty-seven years old at the time of the episode. This would place his birth at about 2219, making him the same age as Doctor Richard Daystrom. Stephen Kandel was highly proud of having conceived Harry Mudd. "Harry Mudd was a marvelous character because of the highly recognizable Human quality set against the alien-in-time or alien-in-space activity that evolved," Kandel remarked. "That's what made it amusing, and it's also hard to do because you had stern-jawed Kirk who would meet an eight-foot intelligent reptile and deal with him as any astronaut would. Then, the reptile would meet Harry Mudd, whose first impulse would be to run and hide, and second impulse would be to sell it scale enhancer." ( issue #117, p. 44) Stephen Kandel was also impressed with Roger C. Carmel's performances of the role, enthusing, "Roger C. Carmel was wonderful as Harry. He inhabited the character and expanded it .... He developed the character physically as an actor .... He 'WAS' the character to such a large degree that no one else could possibly play the part." ( issue #117, p. 44) "It was an ideal part for him," Kandel also commented, and related that he believed the role fit Carmel to such a degree that the actor was slightly frustrated that the other roles of his career failed to measure up to it. (The Star Trek Interview Book, p. 134) Along with Khan Noonien Singh, Mudd was one of only two opponents to face Kirk more than once in live-action Star Trek productions. Plans for a third TOS episode featuring Harry Mudd, entitled "Deep Mudd", were scrapped when Carmel became unavailable. ( issue #117, p. 44) In , an illustration of Harcourt Fenton Mudd was seen when Data was assimilating the Dixon Hill novels. This illustration was from the FASA RPG module The Federation. The Art of Star Trek contained a photo of a raktajino bottle from Quark's Bar which bore a label stating: "100% Colombian," "Made from the Green Hills of Earth" (a title of a short story by Robert Heinlein), and "Imported by Harcourt Mudd." If this was canonical and referred to the same Harcourt Mudd, it would indicate that Mudd entered into this business sometime after the First Khitomer Accords and his original misadventures with the crew of the Enterprise, because raktajino was unknown to the Federation in the 2260s, as documented in . During pre-production on , Ira Steven Behr voiced regret that the episode's villain wasn't "someone like Harry Mudd." Behr went on to say, "He's a real villain, but essentially a comic character, and that would make the two sides of the story match up." Because it was too late in the process of the episode's creation for such a drastic change, however, the concept of using Mudd was largely forgotten by the DS9 writing staff. The only exception was in the mind of Hans Beimler, who imagined an ending to "One Little Ship" if Mudd had indeed appeared therein. Relaying the conclusion, René Echevarria said, "Once Harry realizes he's been foiled, he steals a runabout and tries to make his escape from the '' .... He gets pulled into the [compression anomaly|[episode's anomaly]] and it's about to close up forever when we beam him onto the ship, and he's only fraction of an inch in size .... And Odo says, 'Well, at least we won't have to feed him very much! " (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 531) Before actor Greg Grunberg portrayed Commander in , multiple individuals suggested to him that he should play Harry Mudd in the alternate reality films. "''I would absolutely love to play Harry Mudd, that would be incredible," Grunberg enthused. "I would have to redefine the character and do it the way I see doing it, but that character to me has comedy and brings levity and I would be able to work with robotic chicks. How fun would that be?" Regarding Mudd's appearance, Grunberg reckoned, laughing, "I would go with the big mustache and an earring, why not?" Apocrypha In the video game , Mudd encountered Kirk again in 2268, between the events of and . He was discovered on a salvage mission of a derelict ship of unknown alien origin. While aboard, he managed to accidentally sell weapon components to pirates, become infected with unknown alien drugs, nearly kill an Enterprise landing party with faulty equipment, and destroy a priceless archive of computer records. Following the conclusion of his investigation, Captain Kirk ordered Mudd to donate five of every artifact he found to research. Also, Lt. Uhura arranged for Mudd to meet his "long-lost wife" at a nearby starbase. In the game, Mudd's voice was provided by Tom Wyner. In "It's a Living", Mudd later purchased a planet for its rare ores, but found, to his dismay, that the planet was actually a large egg for a space-faring creature. After it hatched, Mudd sold the planet back to its original owner (who was unaware of the creature), but he still ended up losing out, as the ores were then floating in space and were actually easier to mine. Other appearances of Mudd included Where Sea Meets Sky, Mudd in Your Eye, "The Business, As Usual, During Altercations" (from Mudd's Angels), "The Light Fantastic", "Operation Con Game", "When You Wish Upon a Star...!", "Mudd's Magic!", "Mission: Muddled", "The Sky Above... The Mudd Below", "Target: Mudd!", "Made Out of Mudd", and "The Survival Equation". Harry Mudd's alternate reality mirror universe counterpart appears in the Star Trek: Ongoing comic Live Evil, Part 1, where he has been doing business with the mirror universe counterpart of . When he attempts to re-negotiate his terms with Mirror Kirk, the deposed captain shoots and kills him. External link * de:Harcourt Fenton Mudd fr:Harcourt Fenton Mudd pt:Harry Mudd Category:Humans